- Who are Bryon and Mark? Bryon Douglas and Mark Jennings are teen age boys who live in a low income neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mark came to live with Bryon when his parents shot and killed each other. Bryon and Mark often refer to themselves brothers. Bryon Douglas is the narrator in this story.
- Who are the two young people Bryon meets at the hospital? Bryon meets Cathy Carlson who is home from school and working as a waitress at the hospital cafeteria. Bryon finds out that Cathy is M&M's sister. M& M is a friend of Bryon and Mark. Bryon also meets Mike Chambers who is a patient across the hall from Bryon's Mom who has been sick in the hospital for a long time. Mrs. Douglas encourages Bryon and Mark to talk to Mike because he does not have many visitors. Bryon visits MIke and discovers that Mike defended a young black girl from a gang in his neighborhood and then she turns on him and has her friends beat him up when MIke drives her home. Mike didn't hold a grudge against the girl but while Mark could not understand this, Bryon could see Mike's point about not hating people.
- What kind of relationship does Bryon have with Charlie? Charlie was a twenty two year bartender who owned his own bar. Charlie died trying to protect Bryon and Mark from pool hustlers. Charlie was smart, tough and a good friend to both boys. He would let them run up a tab at the bar, borrow his car and try to give them advice about growing up and life.
- What happens at the dance? Bryon is at the dance with Cathy, Mark is hanging out with Curtis and Angela, Bryon's ex-girlfriend are also at the dance. A fight breaks out between some kid and Curtis but Mark steps in to help Curtis and ends up getting hit in the head with a glass bottle. Bryon finds out that Angela persuaded the other boy to fight Curtis because she liked him and he was too shy to notice her. Bryon has to take Mark to the hospital because he is badly hurt.
- What does Bryon begin to discover in his private conservations with Mark? Bryon discovers that Mark was an illegitimate child and that he really didn't know who is father was and that he feels that Bryon is the only family he has. When he talks with Mark, Bryon realizes that Mark doesn't over think things and wonder why or what if something happened. Bryon knows that Mark cares about him but realizes that Mark doesn't care about anything else.
- What happens to Charlie? How do Bryon and Mark feel about it? Charlie gets killed by two Texans who were hustled by Mark and Bryon in a pool game. After Mark and Bryon won, the Texans were mad and decided to beat them up but Charlie came out with his gun but the Texans shot him. Charlie was a hero.
- What do Mark and Cathy think of each other? Mark and Cathy don't understand each other and they don't like each other. Mark is jealous that Cathy takes up all of Bryon's time and is changing him. Cathy doesn't like how impulsive Mark is and that Mark doesn't have any regard for other people.
- What does Mark do to Angel? Mark and Bryon see Angela in a parking lot off the Ribbon, she is drunk. Mark buys more rum and gives it to Angela who passes out in the car. Mark pulls out a pair of scissors and cuts off Angela's long, beautiful, black hair. Mark does this to get back at her for setting up Curtis and almost getting him killed.
- In chapter seven, what does Bryon begin to discover about his good friend Mark? Bryon begins to discover that he is growing apart from Mark because Mark doesn't have any sense of guilt or shame for Charlie's death. Mark lives to get into trouble and likes to be violent while Bryon is learning that violence isn't always the answer and that the fighting needed to stop
- What happens to Bryon at Terry Jones' house? How does his attitude change? When Bryon gets to Terry Jones' house, he thinks everyone went to the store to get alcohol to drink so he sits on the step waiting for them. While he is waiting; Angela's older brothers, the Shephard boys beat Bryon up for cutting off Angela's hair even though it was Mark who actually cut her hair.When Mark finds Bryon all beat up, Bryon tells him that he doesn't want revenge for this he just wants all the violence to end.
- In chapter nine, what happens to M&M? Why does this move Bryon? In chapter nine, M&M has been using drugs at the Hippie hangout and he has overdosed on LSD. When Bryon and Cathy find him; he is hallucinating spiders. They take him to the hospital and the doctor tells them he might never be the same. Bryon is very upset by this because he thought of M&M as his own brother. Bryon knew that M&M was smart and a good kid and now everything has changed. Seeing Cathy upset and crying made Bryon evern more upset and he cried too.
- What shocking discovery does Bryon make in Mark's bedroom (chapter 10) What does he do? While Bryon was looking for a cigarette in Mark's room he put his hand under Mark's mattress and found hundreds of pills. He realized that Mark was a dealer and that he was the cause of alot of people being hooked on drugs. Bryon called the police and turned Mark in and they took him away.
- How does Bryon's relationship with his friends and his attitude toward life completely change? Bryon doesn't spend much time with his friends or Cathy. He spends most of his time studying and working. He has become more mature and had given up the drinking and fighting. Although, he is emotionally mixed up, he doesn't want to care about anyone and he is indifferent about life.
- How does Bryon feel at the end of the book? Bryon feels confused by the turn of events in his life. He used to be sure about everything but now he just questions and asks himself "what if", he replays all the that happened to him over and over again. He basically just care emotionally about life.
- What do you think about the book and what life message does it teach? I enjoyed the book but I thought it was dark and depressing. Bryon and Mark had a tough life from the very beginning and it only became tougher as they became older. They had to deal with dysfunctional families, drugs, drinking, violence and gangs. The message that I took away from the book is that you can change the direction of your life but you have to have courage to make the change. Some decisions are not easy to make especially if they involve your friends but you still have to make the right choices. As you get older you realize that everything isn't just about you, there are consequences to your actions and how you behave really does effect how people treat you,what they think about you and more importantly how it affects your future.
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